Im 6'1 and only 168lbs im just starting out lifting and i would like to gain a nice 30 extra lbs of muscle in the next 2-3 months before my birthday any suggestions? Just wondering how much i should be eating and how much protein i should take in. I am also not sure how often i should consume protein. What kind of sets should i be doing to get a big gain like that? Will cardio help or harm my goal to get bigger?

3 answers

It's basically the same response I would give someone who wanted to lose "X" amount of lbs in a small period of time -our bodies just simply aren't built that way. You may, I say you may be able to gain 30 lbs of weight in the mix of muscle & fat, but pure muscle that's earned, simy won't be had in that timeframe.

You need to plan & implement a strategy that allows you to safely increase the amount of weights you're lifting, the amount of calories you consume & increase the amount of sleep you receive at night as well as your recovery time -but everything I listed takes time & again, if done right, needs to be phased in.

I'm not saying you shouldn't implement all the things I just listed, but a more feasible timeframe is probably 6-12 months & that's being aggressive.

Like the guy said above ^^^^, it does take time, unfortunately...but what I say to maximize your gains is to eat 300-500 cals over the amount of calories to maintain your body weight (find out here: http://www.scoobysworkshop.com/caloriecalculator.htm), lift heavy weights that weakens you with a rep range from 6-8, and 3 to 4 sets of each....and then increase reps by 2 after each week....and if your an ectomorph like me, don't do cardio...it will eat away your calories that you need for growth....only on off days you can do cardio...

I too have always been a classic Ectomorph & my whole point was that it can be accomplished, but it simply takes time. One of the biggest mistakes an Ectomorph can make is to increase the caloric intake with garbage. Yes it will enable the increase in weight, but it’s not the desirable weight. In addition, with guys, it tends to pool in certain areas like the belly, trunk, love handles, etc –needless-to-say, not what you want.

It can be done, but it takes time

Timmy, I visited your website & I was inspired by listening to your story & it was great to see you representing the Anytime Fitness brand & image by wearing the AF shirt & your endorsement of your local AF. I was in your shoes years ago & I’d like to follow your journey with the hopes of being as virtually supportive as possible. Good luck buddy.